Secondary teachers have voted to accept the government’s offer to settle their collective agreement with 65% of PPTA members voting to ratify the deal.

PPTA president Jack Boyle says by accepting the offer members are putting their hope into the accord with NZEI Te Riu Roa and the Government.

“They are expecting that it will act quickly to bring significant reductions in workload and an increase in the number of New Zealanders training to become secondary teachers and stem the flow of those leaving because of excessive workloads. This settlement gives it some space to do that critical work.

“The accord provides an opportunity to make immediate and sustainable changes that will attract great people into secondary teaching and retain those teachers who are currently struggling with excessive workloads.”

“We will be working with the government to make those goals a reality. We need to, if we are to have the secondary teachers New Zealand needs to be the best place to be a child, and where every young person leaves school with the skills, confidence, values and knowledge that will allow them to make the most of every opportunity,” says Boyle.

“We look forward to working with the PPTA to progress the Accord, to resolve complex issues in the education system, that secondary teachers also want addressed,” says Iona Holsted, Secretary for Education.

The secondary teachers’ agreement comes after primary teachers also voted to settle their agreement. However, primary principals are still unhappy with the offer on the table and have voted against settling.

Holsted is keen to clarify aspects of the latest offer to principals.

“Principals’ pay is determined by school roll size. This has always been the case and remains so under the offer. In some cases small school principals are paid less than a teacher with leadership responsibilities in a larger school. This is not new and the current offer does not change this.

“Our offer was weighted in favour of principals of our smallest schools who got proportionately bigger increases than other principals. The offer also included additional staff for small schools.

“We have offered to look at a range of issues raised by principals through an Accord, including pay parity.”

Holsted says the Ministry is meeting with the NZEI later this week to discuss.